West Africa, Inland Nigeria, Gongola River Valley, Dakakari or Ga'anda culture, ca. 1950s CE. An intriguing hand-built pottery ritual libation vessel in the form of a highly abstract anthropomorphic female figure. Resting on a singular foot, the eccentric figure displays a voluminous body, attenuated arms represented by applied incised strips of clay, lengthy fingers that rest on her belly, a projecting navel, delineated genitalia, a tubular neck, and a rectangular head capped by a hemispherical headdress with a curved cylindrical finial. Each side of her janiform head displays coffee-bean shaped, slitted eyes, a raised, a circular nose, and an open, annular mouth. Heavily adorned, the fascinating female is embellished with dozens of incised strips of clay, four tubular openwork arches surrounding her head, one with a pottery ring, and a fifth arch on the side of her leg. Size: 5.75" W x 17.5" H (14.6 cm x 44.4 cm)

While Dakakari household pottery is relatively uniform in its style; the creativity of this culture's artisans really shines in examples like this one, which was made to hold ritual libations for the deceased. Pottery of this kind was observed in Dakakari funerary sites through the 1950s, but it recalls that of the Sokoto (among others), the ancestors of the Dakakari who lived 2000 years ago in the same part of Nigeria. Ethnographic accounts say that some graves had up to fifteen pieces of pottery like this placed around them. Dakakari women were the potters and passed their skills down via their daughters.

Provenance: private Houston, Texas, USA collection, acquired in 2015; ex-Gallery Jatad, Houston, Texas, USA

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#162787

Missing projecting embellishment on side. Bottom area of openwork arch on leg has been repaired with break lines visible. A few lightly abraded areas. Otherwise, very nice with lovely earthen deposits throughout.